ride.gobig: Rattle Snake Canyon

I've lived in GJ for three years and until today had never been to Rattle Snake Canyon, the highest concentration of arches out-side of Arches Nat. Park.

There is good reason why not a lot of folks go there. It's quite long and hard to get to. The jeep road in is perfect for weeding out the wanna-be's in Hummers.

The hike in takes a while also, its kind of a boring hike through Juniper scrub along a big escarpment of rock. Its the kind of trail that makes me want my bike, so I can cover it quickly.

But once you round the edge of the rock wall you enter another world, full of red rock and towering arches. And not a parking-lot in sight! Had Arches Nat Park been left like this place it would still be.... well, a REAL National Park, instead of a National Parking Lot.

Despite being a Tuesday I still met one couple on the trail and two guys were somewhere behind me. Lots of people these days, I guess I'm one of them too.

The above arch is the last one you come to on the trail. I was dreading the walk back and looking for a place to scale the walls and get up to the level above. Gustifson is a good climber but he isn't a spiderdog. If we could get up and through this arch it would save us about a 3 mile hike. It was about this time that the two guys caught up with us and, can you believe it, they had a rope!

I tied Gus's collar on really tight and I tugged on the rope while one of the other guys pushed. About that time Gus's collar came off and Gus lunged upward seemingly not to need our help at all. Apparently he is a spiderdog, or it was the guys thumb that was just too close to Gus's bum hole that made him jump up so fast. What ever happened is between Gus and that dude, but he made it up the vertical 4 ft slickrock wall.